[TriLUG] Microsoft to support Linux

Brian Henning lugmail at cheetah.dynip.com
Thu Apr 21 20:57:54 EDT 2005


Argh.  My most recent sendmail installation was installed a bit TOO tight...
That last message from me should have gone out a couple hours ago..  heh
heh...

Anyhoo.  Aaron has certainly shed some interesting light on the issue of
transferrability of MS licenses.  I imagine even more of my questions could
be answered if I reread the EULAs more carefully myself.

Actually, in my original post, the [non-] transferrability I was alluding to
was specifically for Client Access Licenses.  Perhaps they transfer
automatically as needed, and perhaps permanent CALs behave differently than
temporary CALs (at least as far as Terminal Services), but when I use the TS
Licensing management app, I see zero actions that can be performed on an
existing license.  No releasing, no transferring.  Granted, however, that
all I have right now are temporary TS CALs.  Next week I'll have some
permanent paid-for TS CALs to experience, and see if they're transferrable
from one client connection to another (i.e. will two permanent CALs allow
ANY two machines to be connected at a given time, or ONLY two machines to
ever be connected?...).

As far as transferring an OS license..  Perhaps the EULA allows for it, but
certain versions (namely OEM) of the Product Keys only allow you to activate
for ONE machine and ONE machine only.  Transferring that license would have
to involve a probably headache-generating call to MS Customer Support.
Which is why I'm rallying for Open Licensing at my workplace.  No
activations, so internal transferral of licenses is [read: should be] a
snap.

~B

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
Behalf Of Aaron S. Joyner
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 7:08 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Microsoft to support Linux


David McDowell wrote:

>I'm in no way trying to rant... so please know this is light and curious.
:)
>
>I'm curious what you mean by non transferrable??  I can take any
>server I have, take it out of commission, replace with a completely
>new server and use the same license.  That is transferrable.
>
>
But can you "Transfer" it to someone else?  Can you give away or sell
that which you have purchased to another individual?  From Microsoft's
Windows XP Professional EULA:

> 4. TRANSFER-Internal.  You may move the Product to a different
> Workstation Computer.  After the transfer, you must completely remove
> the Product from the former Workstation Computer.  Transfer to Third
> Party. The initial user of the Product may make a one-time transfer of
> the Product to another end user.  The transfer has to include all
> component parts, media, printed materials, this EULA, and if
> applicable, the Certificate of Authenticity.  The transfer may not be
> an indirect transfer, such as a consignment.  Prior to the transfer,
> the end user receiving the transferred Product must agree to all the
> EULA terms.  No Rental.  You may not rent, lease, lend or provide
> commercial hosting services to third parties with the Product.

So the net result there being you can, with out a whole lot of hassle,
transfer the license.  Oh, but only once.  And only with some strings
about not being able to host or lease on XP Pro.  Let's go back in time
a bit farther to Windows 2000 Pro:

> Software Product Transfer.  You may permanently transfer all of your
> rights under this EULA only as part of a permanent sale or transfer of
> the HARDWARE, provided you retain no copies, you transfer all of the
> SOFTWARE PRODUCT (including all component parts, the media and printed
> materials, any upgrades, this EULA and, if applicable, the
> Certificate(s) of Authenticity), and the recipient agrees to the terms
> of this EULA.  If the SOFTWARE PRODUCT is an upgrade, any transfer
> must also include all prior versions of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

So with 2k we can't transfer it at all, unless it goes with the machine
(98SE was very similar as well).  But there's no draconian limitations
about what we can and can't do with it in terms of providing hosting to
other customers.  Guess they hadn't thought that up yet.  :)  How about
Windows 2000 Server?  Let's take a peak:

> Transfer to Third Party. The initial user of the Product may make a
> one-time transfer of the Product to another end user. The transfer has
> to include all component parts, media, printed materials, this EULA,
> and if applicable, the Certificate of Authenticity. The transfer may
> not be an indirect transfer, such as a consignment.  Prior to the
> transfer, the end user receiving the transferred Product must agree to
> all the EULA terms. No Rental. You may not rent, lease, or lend the
> Product.

So here's where the "may not rent, lease or lend" verbiage started to
creep in.  Note that we also can't transfer but once in 2k Server.
There are similar niceties about being able to move it from device to
device internal in your corporation just before the 3rd party parts, as
was in the XP license quoted above.

I tried to find a copy of the Server 2003 licensing, but I was unable to
google one up.  I suspect it's more draconian than the XP licensing, in
continuing with M$'s strategy of hiring more and more lawyers to cook up
more and more ways to restrict your use of their code, to translate into
more and more money, in ever craftier ways.  Then again, I'm a bit of a
biased point of view.  :)

Personally, I'll stick with products that if I like them sufficiently,
and want to use them myself, *encourage* me to give copies to as many
people as I can find.  I'd rather have a software provider that is more
interested in my being thrilled with the function of their software,
than how much of my budget I'm willing to spend with them.

Aaron S. Joyner
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